It was a good day for Novak Djokovic at the U.S. Open on Tuesday, as he claimed his spot in a record 47th Grand Slam semi-final when Karolina Muchova was happy with all facets of her game as she overwhelmed Romania's Sorana Cirstea to book place in the last fours on same day.
For Djokovic it was an even better one for the United States with Coco Gauff and Ben Shelton getting through to the last four. Karolina Muchova outlayed Sorana Cirstea by 6-0 6-3 to set up her U.S. Open semi-final against American Coco Gauff. Muchova, seeded 10th, smacked 32 winners and played outstanding defence to see off the 33-year-old Cirstea at Arthur Ashe Stadium and reach the last four at Flushing Meadows for the first time.
Meanwhile, the only thing that kept it from being a perfect tennis Tuesday for home fans was Djokovic beating Taylor Fritz 6-1 6-4 6-4 to stay on course for a fourth U.S. Open title that would see him match Margaret Court’s record haul of 24 Grand Slam.
With the temperature once again nudging towards 100 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius), 19-year-old Gauff warmed up the Arthur Ashe crowd by speeding past Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko 6-0 6-2 to become the youngest American to reach the U.S. Open women's semi-finals since Serena Williams in 2001.
But Fritz could not keep the party going, although the 25-year-old had his opportunities, converting only two of 12 break chances while committing 51 unforced errors, almost double his opponent's 26. Fritz had lost all seven career meetings with Djokovic and never beaten a top-10 opponent at a Grand Slam but rolled into the quarter-finals in sensational form, the only player to not drop a set and broken only once in 50 service games. Djokovic wasted no time ending both those runs, breaking the American three times before ending the first set with a booming ace and never took his foot off the gas.
The fickle New York crowd has never really fully embraced Djokovic and the Serb is likely to find himself increasingly unpopular this week.
Not since Andy Roddick in 2003 has an American man won the U.S. Open and Djokovic could single-handedly dash home hopes of ending that drought. Having eliminated Fritz he now finds 20-year-old Shelton standing between him and a 10th trip to the final.
The atmosphere during a night session is always electric but it was dialed up a few notches for Tiafoe and Shelton, the contest the first in 15 years two feature two Black American men battling on the world's largest tennis venue. The match lived up to its blockbuster billing as the big-hitting Shelton hammered his way to 6-2 3-6 7-6(7) 6-2, becoming the youngest American to reach the U.S. Open men's last four since Michael Chang in 1992.
If Gauff is to reach her first U.S. Open final she will need to get past tricky Czech Karolina Muchova, who was a 6-0 6-3 winner over Romanian Sorana Cirstea.
The semi-final will be an intriguing match-up between two of tennis’s hottest and most creative players.
Since her opening round loss at Wimbledon Gauff has won 17 of her last 18 matches, including titles in Washington and Cincinnati.
Muchova, the French Open finalist, has also been in superb hardcourt form, getting to the round of 16 at the Canadian Open and falling to Iga Swiatek, before losing in the final of the Cincinnati Open to Gauff.
Gauff may not have to carry the U.S. flag into the last four on her own, with Madison Keys, the losing finalist in 2017, meeting Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova on Wednesday in quarter-final action.